So this morning I finished my last full-term class of the Oxford University MBA program!!! To prove that I actually learned something we wrapped up with a bang. 

Our final assignment for Private Equity pretty much drew upon everything we have learned during the MBA program. Last week we got the assignment along with a 400 page prospectus. In one week we were supposed to value the company, analyze the industry and develop a likely financing and exit strategy for a hypothetical PE fund. In the end we lost track of the total number of hours that went into this assignment, suffice to say we spent all of last weekend in our “War Room” at school…the whole weekend was actually kind of fun…and it was quite hilarious when Tim would occasionally walk by the door with this “evil” grin on his face! Thankfully while I focused on industry/corporate analysis & strategy I had some absolutely incredible financial wiz’s on the team who did an amazing job with the numbers!

It paid off today though…as we had a few folks from Morgan Stanley come in and run us through their own valuation. It was gratifying to see that we were well within their ranges and that our strategic analysis was spot on. At the end of class they announced the top-5 presentations that they really liked and we came in 2nd! Got a really cheap 64mb USB stick (come on…who gives away 64mb memory sticks anymore!) but they made up for it with a really nice Cross pen. It was a great way to cap off the program!

If anyone is interested this is the assignment brief we were given along with background document and our final deliverable. 
Oxford SBS PE Class - Capstone Valuation
Ardagh Glass Background Information
Final PowerPoint Deliverable (9mb)

You can view the final presentation here, without having to download the file….




If anyone is interested in learning more about the practical issues surrounding Private Equity or Venture Capital they should take a look at Tim Jenkinson’s website. He teaches the SBS Private Equity course and his site contains a wealth of information about the field. If you want to hear more about the industry, in person….every year the Oxford Private Equity Network runs a conference in April that is open to all participants.